Madam, - The planned marina complex at Greystones will be much more beautiful than the present decrepit eyesore that once was a harbour.
When there is a forecast of heavy weather, commercial fishing boats and yachts flee the Greystones breakwater for the safety of the Wicklow, Bray, or Dublin ports. Smaller boats have to be dragged across stones to be landed above the high-tide line. The patch-and-mend alternative propounded by the anti-development activists will not cure those difficulties; nor will it cater for the thousands of new home- owners who are moving into the area, many of whom will want to participate in marine activities.
The anti-development activists have become rude and myopic. They accuse the politicians who do not support them of cowardice - punishable by death at the ballot box.
The real political cowards are those political parties which are backing both sides - those middle of-the-roaders who claim they want the harbour improved but not on the grand scale that the developers intend. They ignore the fact that size is an essential element of the financial and operational viability of the project.
Peter Murtagh (Weekend Review, February 11th) claims that the developers are being "given" land, public rights of way, foreshore and reclaimed land. In fact, in return for a huge financial investment the developers will be allowed to take a commercial risk in the execution of their plans. Hardly a given!
The public rights of way will not be lost on us; some may be moved and all will be improved. The foreshore of the entire nation remains ours under the control of the Minister of the Marine. The proposed development would restore much of the beach that was, along with 26 houses, swept away by storms in 1926. The long-term benefits to the local people, the county and the country far outweigh the short-term inconveniences that we will have to tolerate.
Most of the people to whom I have spoken support the present proposal. Some worry about the, as yet unknown, outward appearance of the apartments but have no objections to the plan in general. None of them would fit Peter Murtagh's picture of bullies "with knuckles dragging along the ground". I believe that if the proposed plans are rejected, or too radically altered, then the developer will walk away from the project and we will spend another generation squabbling about an infinite number of alternatives.
I do support those who are working to protect the views from Marine Road, Dun Laoghaire. They are national treasures. But the view of Greystones harbour is a local disgrace. - Yours, etc,
JOSEPH HACKETT, Victoria Road, Greystones, Co Wicklow.